Chapter 117: A Surge in Strength

The Sovereign of the Qianwu Cosmic Nation gazed down at the three immortal deities trembling uncontrollably beneath him and sighed helplessly.

“You’ve wasted too much time nurturing the younger generation. The three of you should focus on cultivating yourselves and strengthening your powers. As for training the young ones, I will assign others to that task,” his deep voice resonated across the starry expanse without any obstruction, directly reaching the ears and souls of the three immortals.

“Yes, Sovereign!” they replied respectfully.

“Go forth.”

Only then did the three immortal beings breathe a sigh of relief and respectfully depart.

The Sovereign turned his gaze toward the vast cosmic stars and murmured, “It has been a long time since I took on an apprentice. I hope this young fellow named Luo Yuan will bring me some surprises.”

...

“Lost!”

“You lost again.”

“Still lost.”

“Alright, Luo Feng, today’s three matches against Luo Yuan end here.” On the desert expanse of the Killing Space, the little demon Babata waved his hand, and the simulated Luo Yuan standing nearby instantly vanished. This Luo Yuan was a projection created within the Killing Space, with strength, wisdom, and experience calibrated to match reality.

Luo Feng stood in the desert, frowning. “I can’t even withstand a single strike from Luo Yuan—and this is just a simulation.”

“Luo Feng, don’t lose heart,” Babata encouraged. “The gap between you and Luo Yuan is enormous right now. It’s no surprise you can’t win. Luo Yuan is a freak who has mastered ten domains and several corresponding laws. I don’t know how he achieved this level, but I believe you have great potential too. You’ll catch up to him eventually.”

Luo Feng nodded slightly.

...

On the Asian continent of Earth, in a wild zone.

“Mo Yun Vine, come eat this life fruit!” Luo Yuan tossed a fruit brimming with potent life energy toward Mo Yun Vine. The vine, which had stretched thousands of miles, extended a tendril to wrap the fruit and then burrowed underground to consume it. Over the years, Luo Yuan had been feeding Mo Yun Vine with Lan Ke fruits, steadily raising its power to the ninth cosmic tier. Today was the day it would break through to the Domain Lord level.

“Boom~ boom~”

A week later, a powerful surge of life energy erupted from underground with terrifying might. The remaining beasts in the wild zone trembled in fear under the suppression of Luo Yuan’s stellar-level servants, but none dared to stray.

“It’s done. I now have a Domain Lord-level Mo Yun Vine.”

Suddenly, a golden light penetrated Luo Yuan’s skin. With a thought, the Mo Yun Vine transformed into a suit of dark-gold battle armor, enveloping Luo Yuan entirely. Feeling the immense power of the Domain Lord Mo Yun Armor, he laughed with joy. Without tapping into his own strength, a casual punch shattered a colossal meteor into dust in outer space.

With another thought, countless vines extended from Luo Yuan’s hands, swiftly tearing a corner off a Saturn meteorite.

“Truly awesome! I like this, hahahaha!” Luo Yuan laughed heartily.

A month later, upon learning that Luo Feng’s golden-horned beast clone—the Demon Slayer Tribe clone—had fully gestated, Luo Yuan borrowed it for a few days of rigorous training. He acquired several of its innate talents, particularly three abilities that pleased him most.

The first was a replication skill: by analyzing another life form’s genetic makeup, he could transform himself to mimic it, copying its life aura, soul aura, and more. This allowed him free shapeshifting. If he replicated the target’s soul aura through this talent, he could remain undetectable by all but the truly immortal—unless one probed inside his body with telekinesis, no external observation or aura sensing could reveal the disguise.

The second ability was an unparalleled affinity for the spatial-origin laws, further advancing Luo Yuan’s mastery over space and massively enhancing the power of his spatial secret arts.

The third was expertise in concealment, assassination, and reconnaissance—shadowy skills that ensured supreme survivability.

A year later, through selective challenges in the Battle Space against various geniuses, Luo Yuan absorbed the proficiency of numerous skills. His secret technique, the “Myriad Lines Flow,” reached its fourth tier, the ‘Myriad Lines Flow.’ Luo Yuan sensed that once his mastery of the spatial-origin laws accumulated to a certain degree, he would be able to perform “teleportation.”

Of course, he also trained diligently on his own. Supported by abundant resources, his “True Self Realm” attained the second tier, enabling him to alter his body size to some extent. His “Void Tower” solidified at the fourth tier, greatly enhancing his soul’s defenses, making him impervious even to illusions cast by realm lord-level illusionists.

He also completely mastered the golden-horned beast’s claw technique—the “Sky-Rending Earth-Shattering Claw”—capable of tearing opponents apart beyond his rank. He had begun learning the flight and escape technique, “Triple Strike Universe Shuttle.”

Over this year-plus, Luo Yuan’s strength had multiplied dozens of times. He didn’t focus on advancing his realm because after these genius battles ended, entering secret realms with abundant resources would make rank ascension effortless for talents like him.

...

In the blink of an eye, it was September 2070, Huaxia calendar.

Within the entire human race across the cosmos, one thousand and eight cosmic nations gathered over a million prodigies for the peak showdown beginning this month!

On the fifth day of the ninth month, 2070 Huaxia calendar.

At dawn, Luo Yuan stood atop a mist-shrouded mountain peak, in an ancient-style pavilion, gazing eastward as the bright red sun revealed half its face. Though it was summer, the morning air was still refreshingly cool.

“Early morning in the pavilion, watching the sunrise,” Jiang Fang said as she ascended the pavilion, wearing a light sleeping robe. She nestled in Luo Yuan’s arms with closed eyes, savoring the peace of the moment and feeling the restless hands on her body. She coquettishly rolled her eyes at Luo Yuan.

“We’ve been together so long, and you still act like this!” Jiang Fang blushed faintly.

“Hehe,” Luo Yuan chuckled.

“Tomorrow, the battle begins,” Luo Yuan said, eyes on the rising sun, lips curling. “Those geniuses should make things interesting!”

...

The day of the genius finals.

Across the virtual universe’s continents and islands, over a million peerless prodigies from 1,008 cosmic nations teleported to their respective gathering points.

Above the Qianwu Continent, on a floating island.

Whoosh!

Luo Yuan appeared at the teleportation point.

“Mr. Luo Yuan, this way please,” said a cosmic-level warrior in work attire, smiling and gesturing toward a path.

“Thank you.” Luo Yuan smiled and nodded before proceeding along the path.

Moments later—

Luo Yuan saw a plaza nearby surrounded by beautiful flowers and plants, bustling with hundreds of people—men and women of various appearances. At least a third bore features resembling Earth humans, who were considered a mainstream appearance across the cosmos.

“Luo Yuan has arrived.”

“That Demon King who single-handedly destroyed a realm!”

Many young men and women glanced over.

These hundreds had earned their quotas; this time, the Qianwu Cosmic Nation was sending a thousand talents.

“Third Brother, you’re here!” Luo Feng recognized Luo Yuan and ran over smiling.

“Hmm, Fourth Brother, today’s a good day to have some fun. Too bad this virtual universe talent battle limits us all to ninth-tier stellar bodies—it’s not quite thrilling enough,” Luo Yuan replied with a smile.

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